ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY
JOTTINGS.
V. B. Green-Armytage, I.M.S.
The customs and
perhaps
people
of the East
are
most of all is this observable in the
medicine.
I have therefore
attempted
to
slow to move, but practice of Oriental
put
on
paper
a
few
of Oriental lore, with a view to interesting some of your subscribers. But should any reader be too critical, I would ask
examples
ON ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY
4T
JOTTINGS.
him to remember that in the East the system of Purdah, together superstition, make original investigation
with the machinations of
very difficult, however good one's linguistic powers may be. In Northern India the native has a curious method of prophesying the sex of the unborn child : for at the seventh month many relations gather at the house of the future mother, and then a few drops of milk are squeezed out of her breasts on to a piece of
yellow cloth; if, when it dries, it is white, a girl will be born; if yellow it will be a boy. Child-birth itself is a great occasion, fraught with many superstitions ; so perhaps an account of such an incident will not be out of
place. Immediately
a
is
small
piece
supposed
after the birth of the child the mother is
of metal copper to
to
expel
the
placenta.
given
"
dumree," which After this she is given a dose of
swallow, called
assafoetida, to prevent her catching cold and to relieve the afterpains ; this drug being also affirmed to be a stimulant. The midwife, like the gipsy of the West, is wise in her generation, for she demands at this stage
something shining,
to touch the umbilical cord
gold coin, just then she proceeds to deal with it
such
with,
"
as a
silver
for luck;
"
or
and
in the usual
way?appropriating placenta is not a thing despised, but is buried with due state, along with a sacred leaf and small coin, to propitiate the gods; and the knife that cut the cord is kept sacredly for forty days, alongside the mother and child wherever they go or move, for ji^tTas a certain power against all ghosts and evil spirits. During the puerperium the. mother is looked after with great care, and for forty days she is only allowed to drink boiled water, the coin for herself.
in which
a
In the East?unlike the West?the
red-hot horse-shoe has been allowed to cool.
wisdom of this
The
easily seen. However, she and her child have ever to be on guard against evil influences. No dog or cat must come near her, and more especially the latter, as it is regarded as a witch. Moreover, any stranger coming to the house has to throw some myrrh on the fire to ward off all evil course
will be
spirits from the mother washed it is
brought
and child.
and
As
presented
soon as
to its
the child has been
relations, when,
if it
V. B. GREEN-ARMYTAGE
42
belong
to
Mussulman
a
family,
"
the
Azan,"
or
call to prayer,
"
pronounced in his left ear, and the Tukbeer," or creed, into his right. Baptism soon follows, and is usually rather a gamble, for one of the family will open the Koran at any page, and then
is
the first letter of the first word
the child's
name
on.
The occasion is
cumcised.
but of
family,
the page is chosen to construct Like the Jews, every Mussulman is ciron
of much
usually one patient,
for the
suffering
hilarity
for the
the Koran law decrees
as
that it must be done between the ages of seven and fourteen. The boy is placed on an earthen drum and is given bhang
(Cannabis Indica) to drink. He is then engaged in conversation, After the homely barber deftly wields the razor. a feather and a are tied round operation peacock's copper ring his neck, to ward off evil spirits, and the parts are dressed with powdered benzoin. whilst the
For the
commoner
medical diseases the uneducated Indian has
confidence in the native
implicit
much to the herbalist of
"
hakim,"
England
or
who
corresponds
the medicine
man
very of Zulu-
land. It is difficult to describe his methods, for his eye and conversation elicit all the information he needs for treatment. Once I asked he
was
His
going
answer
a
hakim what his
was :
whether it is
diagnosis
to set about to find out, the
a
hot
"
Sir,
or
a
God knows his
of
a case
was, and
how
patient being delirious. disease; we only know
cold disease, and
find
or
think it, I shall
you
an
idea of their modus
him of my
give operandi.
according to which I drugs." This will give
But I may say that often
their medicine has excellent results, and they, moreover, know their limitations, for they send their surgical and unsuccessful cases
to the civil surgeon,
obtain
partly,
doubt, because they
no
money. One rather curious mode of treatment is to
ulcer
can
no more
an
oil
impotence,
expressed a
to take the
from the head of
condition
penis
of
ever a
a
in the East
crocodile
cobra;
apply and
to
a
septic
another,
for
for treatment, is brutes abound in the
calling
(these
rivers), dry it in the sun, and then powder it finely. The powder thus obtained is a very valuable and precious remedy, and fetches large
sums
of money for
a
dose of
a
few
grains.
ON ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY
43
JOTTINGS.
Another is to
apply to every sore, or ulcer, or boil, a compress soap?which readily cures. This, of course, is a I have seen very commonly used in the West Indies, remedy and is interesting in view of Sir A. E. Wright's work on capillary
of sugar and
transudation. But
perhaps the
most
extraordinary and interesting thing of all I have spoken in a
is the faith in the power of charms to heal. previous article, of a so-called snake bite
nothing, compared to ?cure
an
amulet which
for fearsome hemorrhoids
?consisted of
figures
a
metal
and lines
disc,
on
or
which
was
cure,
sold to
confluent
were
but this is me as a
as
certain It
small-pox.
scratched the following
:?
"the figures of which, added up vertically, diagonally or horizontally, make the same total. I was assured that all that was required was to wash the disc two or three times a day in water,
then drink the water, and mutter,
il-lul-ha-ho, Mohamed, God except the
God"),
one
oor
true
Rasul-Ullahah
of these discs?all
soon
varying
the whole gamut of diseases. Nor should it be thought that
in
La-il-la-hah, is
("There
God, and Mohamed
and that the utterer would
great variety
"
"
is the
be well!
potency,
no
other
prophet
There and
are
of a
covering
prognosis will offer any difficulty to these astute fellows, for they have a very definite system ?of application, which I will explain. First, they inquire on what day the man went sick. If he cannot say, they take the number ?of letters in his, or his mother's, name and divide it by seven ; if
ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY JOTTINGS
44 one
If
Saturday; if two,, procedure is as follows.
remain he must have been taken ill and
on a
Sunday, Saturday,
so
Then the
on.
on a
day, the disease must be due tO' of the blood, or a malignant eye, and must last seven days; the only treatment is for his friends to give propitiary
on
heat and
alms to
fakirs,
thereof.
If
as
it is Saturn's
and to
on
due to the evil
wear
Sunday, eve
of
as
certain amulets and drink the water it is the
debility,
and
are
of the
symptoms
treated
by
are
god,
it is
woman
with
sun
green-complexioned
some
whom he has taken food ; the and extreme
day
those of anaemia
iron water and
"
cold
"
Monday, the day of the moon god, it is caused by bathing or exertion ; the symptoms are those catching of acute hepatitis, and are treated by hot medicine and local applications. Tuesday is the day of Mars, and illness is due to being attacked by demons and fairies ; the symptoms are those of peritonism, and usually lasts seven days, when death or life will win the victory ! Wednesday is the day of Mercury, and disease is due to having made a vow to the dead and not fulfilled it; the If
sponges.
on
cold after
"
"
symptoms
days,
those of acute rheumatism, which lasts but nine if propitious, recovery will result. Thursday
which,
Jupiter, and illness is due to being symptoms being those of cardiac weakness
is the
the
are
and from
day
of
for which little food is to be taken. that
Eddyism and Easternism are Amongst the lower classes of
beset and
by a fairy indigestion;
You will see,
therefore,
very far apart! the people of India, surgery,
not
so
except in the use of the bluntest knife, is almost unknown; and, indeed, it is their horrible, conservative fatalism that is one's
Many times I have seen compound fractures only hospital either in extremis or with peripheral the relatives gangrene, having done nothing, perhaps for a week or more, but apply neem oil. So far I have spoken only of India; but before finishing, I should like to mention two customs I have recently observed in Upper Burma?the one horrible, the other almost rational. The first is the Burman method of helping a difficult or prolonged labour, by merely jumping on the abdomen of the woman as she lies on the floor; or massaging the abdomen
greatest bugbear.
admitted to
45
MEDICINE.
with his feet, the results being often terrible to both child and mother. The second is their specific for cholera, which they suppose to be due to the evil influence of a spirit; a bell is rung, and then all the villagers collect and rush to the tops of their reed houses and make
tremendous commotion, beating
a
the roofs with
gongs and striking they affirm, drives the evil
a
This,
sort of native broom.
from the house and
village, and certainly on occasion it has some effect; probably owing to the fact that they are all so elevated and engrossed in pursuit of the "Nat," or spirit, that little opportunity is afforded for the despondent and crushing effects of the cholera. The story of plague is another instance of fatalism or superstition almost incomprehensible in the West. Quite recently, I remember,
over a
province alone,
villages,
on
the
spirit
quarter of
because
ground
they
a
million Mussulmans died, in one to leave their infected
refused
that the Koran forbids
a
Mohammedan to
flee from the wrath of God. The natives amid unclean
sponding toll;
swarm
and herd
surroundings, but
"
kismet
indeed is the work of the
the
together
"
is the
plague
only
answer.
corre-
Discouraging as big as
officer in districts
County of Gloucester. Oft-times by agitators, that plague is
concocted
in enormous numbers
and the B. Pestis takes its
he is met with the no
devilish
population,
and this
disease,
contrivance of the Government to reduce the
tale,
a
but
Indeed, the natives of India and Burmah greatest abhorrence and suspicion such things
slander is believed. view with the as
precautionary measures, segregation and disinfectants. Verily, lachrymce rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
sunt
JOTTINGS.
V. B. Green-Armytage, I.M.S.
The customs and
perhaps
people
of the East
are
most of all is this observable in the
medicine.
I have therefore
attempted
to
slow to move, but practice of Oriental
put
on
paper
a
few
of Oriental lore, with a view to interesting some of your subscribers. But should any reader be too critical, I would ask
examples
ON ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY
4T
JOTTINGS.
him to remember that in the East the system of Purdah, together superstition, make original investigation
with the machinations of
very difficult, however good one's linguistic powers may be. In Northern India the native has a curious method of prophesying the sex of the unborn child : for at the seventh month many relations gather at the house of the future mother, and then a few drops of milk are squeezed out of her breasts on to a piece of
yellow cloth; if, when it dries, it is white, a girl will be born; if yellow it will be a boy. Child-birth itself is a great occasion, fraught with many superstitions ; so perhaps an account of such an incident will not be out of
place. Immediately
a
is
small
piece
supposed
after the birth of the child the mother is
of metal copper to
to
expel
the
placenta.
given
"
dumree," which After this she is given a dose of
swallow, called
assafoetida, to prevent her catching cold and to relieve the afterpains ; this drug being also affirmed to be a stimulant. The midwife, like the gipsy of the West, is wise in her generation, for she demands at this stage
something shining,
to touch the umbilical cord
gold coin, just then she proceeds to deal with it
such
with,
"
as a
silver
for luck;
"
or
and
in the usual
way?appropriating placenta is not a thing despised, but is buried with due state, along with a sacred leaf and small coin, to propitiate the gods; and the knife that cut the cord is kept sacredly for forty days, alongside the mother and child wherever they go or move, for ji^tTas a certain power against all ghosts and evil spirits. During the puerperium the. mother is looked after with great care, and for forty days she is only allowed to drink boiled water, the coin for herself.
in which
a
In the East?unlike the West?the
red-hot horse-shoe has been allowed to cool.
wisdom of this
The
easily seen. However, she and her child have ever to be on guard against evil influences. No dog or cat must come near her, and more especially the latter, as it is regarded as a witch. Moreover, any stranger coming to the house has to throw some myrrh on the fire to ward off all evil course
will be
spirits from the mother washed it is
brought
and child.
and
As
presented
soon as
to its
the child has been
relations, when,
if it
V. B. GREEN-ARMYTAGE
42
belong
to
Mussulman
a
family,
"
the
Azan,"
or
call to prayer,
"
pronounced in his left ear, and the Tukbeer," or creed, into his right. Baptism soon follows, and is usually rather a gamble, for one of the family will open the Koran at any page, and then
is
the first letter of the first word
the child's
name
on.
The occasion is
cumcised.
but of
family,
the page is chosen to construct Like the Jews, every Mussulman is ciron
of much
usually one patient,
for the
suffering
hilarity
for the
the Koran law decrees
as
that it must be done between the ages of seven and fourteen. The boy is placed on an earthen drum and is given bhang
(Cannabis Indica) to drink. He is then engaged in conversation, After the homely barber deftly wields the razor. a feather and a are tied round operation peacock's copper ring his neck, to ward off evil spirits, and the parts are dressed with powdered benzoin. whilst the
For the
commoner
medical diseases the uneducated Indian has
confidence in the native
implicit
much to the herbalist of
"
hakim,"
England
or
who
corresponds
the medicine
man
very of Zulu-
land. It is difficult to describe his methods, for his eye and conversation elicit all the information he needs for treatment. Once I asked he
was
His
going
answer
a
hakim what his
was :
whether it is
diagnosis
to set about to find out, the
a
hot
"
Sir,
or
a
God knows his
of
a case
was, and
how
patient being delirious. disease; we only know
cold disease, and
find
or
think it, I shall
you
an
idea of their modus
him of my
give operandi.
according to which I drugs." This will give
But I may say that often
their medicine has excellent results, and they, moreover, know their limitations, for they send their surgical and unsuccessful cases
to the civil surgeon,
obtain
partly,
doubt, because they
no
money. One rather curious mode of treatment is to
ulcer
can
no more
an
oil
impotence,
expressed a
to take the
from the head of
condition
penis
of
ever a
a
in the East
crocodile
cobra;
apply and
to
a
septic
another,
for
for treatment, is brutes abound in the
calling
(these
rivers), dry it in the sun, and then powder it finely. The powder thus obtained is a very valuable and precious remedy, and fetches large
sums
of money for
a
dose of
a
few
grains.
ON ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY
43
JOTTINGS.
Another is to
apply to every sore, or ulcer, or boil, a compress soap?which readily cures. This, of course, is a I have seen very commonly used in the West Indies, remedy and is interesting in view of Sir A. E. Wright's work on capillary
of sugar and
transudation. But
perhaps the
most
extraordinary and interesting thing of all I have spoken in a
is the faith in the power of charms to heal. previous article, of a so-called snake bite
nothing, compared to ?cure
an
amulet which
for fearsome hemorrhoids
?consisted of
figures
a
metal
and lines
disc,
on
or
which
was
cure,
sold to
confluent
were
but this is me as a
as
certain It
small-pox.
scratched the following
:?
"the figures of which, added up vertically, diagonally or horizontally, make the same total. I was assured that all that was required was to wash the disc two or three times a day in water,
then drink the water, and mutter,
il-lul-ha-ho, Mohamed, God except the
God"),
one
oor
true
Rasul-Ullahah
of these discs?all
soon
varying
the whole gamut of diseases. Nor should it be thought that
in
La-il-la-hah, is
("There
God, and Mohamed
and that the utterer would
great variety
"
"
is the
be well!
potency,
no
other
prophet
There and
are
of a
covering
prognosis will offer any difficulty to these astute fellows, for they have a very definite system ?of application, which I will explain. First, they inquire on what day the man went sick. If he cannot say, they take the number ?of letters in his, or his mother's, name and divide it by seven ; if
ORIENTAL MEDICINE?STRAY JOTTINGS
44 one
If
Saturday; if two,, procedure is as follows.
remain he must have been taken ill and
on a
Sunday, Saturday,
so
Then the
on.
on a
day, the disease must be due tO' of the blood, or a malignant eye, and must last seven days; the only treatment is for his friends to give propitiary
on
heat and
alms to
fakirs,
thereof.
If
as
it is Saturn's
and to
on
due to the evil
wear
Sunday, eve
of
as
certain amulets and drink the water it is the
debility,
and
are
of the
symptoms
treated
by
are
god,
it is
woman
with
sun
green-complexioned
some
whom he has taken food ; the and extreme
day
those of anaemia
iron water and
"
cold
"
Monday, the day of the moon god, it is caused by bathing or exertion ; the symptoms are those catching of acute hepatitis, and are treated by hot medicine and local applications. Tuesday is the day of Mars, and illness is due to being attacked by demons and fairies ; the symptoms are those of peritonism, and usually lasts seven days, when death or life will win the victory ! Wednesday is the day of Mercury, and disease is due to having made a vow to the dead and not fulfilled it; the If
sponges.
on
cold after
"
"
symptoms
days,
those of acute rheumatism, which lasts but nine if propitious, recovery will result. Thursday
which,
Jupiter, and illness is due to being symptoms being those of cardiac weakness
is the
the
are
and from
day
of
for which little food is to be taken. that
Eddyism and Easternism are Amongst the lower classes of
beset and
by a fairy indigestion;
You will see,
therefore,
very far apart! the people of India, surgery,
not
so
except in the use of the bluntest knife, is almost unknown; and, indeed, it is their horrible, conservative fatalism that is one's
Many times I have seen compound fractures only hospital either in extremis or with peripheral the relatives gangrene, having done nothing, perhaps for a week or more, but apply neem oil. So far I have spoken only of India; but before finishing, I should like to mention two customs I have recently observed in Upper Burma?the one horrible, the other almost rational. The first is the Burman method of helping a difficult or prolonged labour, by merely jumping on the abdomen of the woman as she lies on the floor; or massaging the abdomen
greatest bugbear.
admitted to
45
MEDICINE.
with his feet, the results being often terrible to both child and mother. The second is their specific for cholera, which they suppose to be due to the evil influence of a spirit; a bell is rung, and then all the villagers collect and rush to the tops of their reed houses and make
tremendous commotion, beating
a
the roofs with
gongs and striking they affirm, drives the evil
a
This,
sort of native broom.
from the house and
village, and certainly on occasion it has some effect; probably owing to the fact that they are all so elevated and engrossed in pursuit of the "Nat," or spirit, that little opportunity is afforded for the despondent and crushing effects of the cholera. The story of plague is another instance of fatalism or superstition almost incomprehensible in the West. Quite recently, I remember,
over a
province alone,
villages,
on
the
spirit
quarter of
because
ground
they
a
million Mussulmans died, in one to leave their infected
refused
that the Koran forbids
a
Mohammedan to
flee from the wrath of God. The natives amid unclean
sponding toll;
swarm
and herd
surroundings, but
"
kismet
indeed is the work of the
the
together
"
is the
plague
only
answer.
corre-
Discouraging as big as
officer in districts
County of Gloucester. Oft-times by agitators, that plague is
concocted
in enormous numbers
and the B. Pestis takes its
he is met with the no
devilish
population,
and this
disease,
contrivance of the Government to reduce the
tale,
a
but
Indeed, the natives of India and Burmah greatest abhorrence and suspicion such things
slander is believed. view with the as
precautionary measures, segregation and disinfectants. Verily, lachrymce rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
sunt
